Clean a messy CSV file
Exports from shops, banks and old systems rarely start at row one. There is a title line, a blank row, headers with spaces around them, amounts with dollar signs, and a total row that gets counted twice the moment you add a SUM.
Drop the file and the table is found wherever it starts. Blank rows and the title go, headers and values are trimmed, amounts and dates get real types, and the total row is used to check the data instead of staying inside it.
Drop files here
or browse your files
XLSX, XLS, CSV, TXT, PDF · up to 25 MB · 1 file without an account
Or try a sample:
Example: before and after
The export line, blank rows and the “Total” row are gone, “ Jane Cooper ” is trimmed, and the total of $3,690.25 was checked against the four orders.
| 1 | Export generated 2026-03-31 by ShopDesk | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | ·Order ID· | ·Customer· | Order Date | ·Total· | Status |
| 4 | 1001 | ··Jane Cooper· | 03/14/2026 | $1,240.00 | Paid |
| 5 | 1002 | Devon Lane | 03/14/2026 | $89.50 | Paid |
| 6 | |||||
| 7 | 1003 | ·Cody Fisher | 03/17/2026 | $2,315.75 | Paid |
| 8 | 1004 | Kristin Watson· | 03/18/2026 | $45.00 | Refunded |
| 9 | Total | $3,690.25 |
| Order ID | Customer | Order Date | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 | Jane Cooper | 03/14/2026 | 1,240.00 | Paid |
| 1002 | Devon Lane | 03/14/2026 | 89.50 | Paid |
| 1003 | Cody Fisher | 03/17/2026 | 2,315.75 | Paid |
| 1004 | Kristin Watson | 03/18/2026 | 45.00 | Refunded |
How to do it
- 1Drop the CSV — any encoding, any separator (comma, semicolon, tab or pipe).
- 2Review the changes; switch off any step you don’t want.
- 3Download a CSV with the separator and encoding your system expects, or an XLSX.
Questions
Which separators and encodings work?
Commas, semicolons, tabs and pipes, quoted or not, in UTF-8, UTF-16 or older Windows and ISO encodings. The separator and encoding are detected from the content, not from the file name.
Will it delete rows I need?
Only rows that are clearly not data — blank lines, report titles, repeated headers, totals. Each removal is listed with the number of rows, and one switch brings them back.
Is the cleaned CSV safe to open in Excel?
Yes. Text that starts with =, +, - or @ gets an apostrophe in front, so a cell can never run as a formula.
Related tasks
- Fix CSV encoding problemsGarbled characters (�, é, —) fixed by detecting the real encoding.
- Remove blank rows and subtotalsBlank lines, subtotals and totals out of the data — and used to check it.
- Fix dates stored as textText dates in any format become real dates — US and UK order decided from the data.